Books

Call The Reading Police

12 Comments / Books, Scientifiction / By /

Yesterday morning I tweeted a handful of insomnia-fueled things related to some discussions that have been floating around in the ether this week:

But then I realized I wanted to unpack some of this a little more and make an auxiliary point or two, as you do. So rambly post, it is.

After I made these tweets, I skimmed the post that touched off this latest round of discussion about Heinlein and whether someone has to read the SF classic canon to be a fan of the genre or a contributing member of the field, and also went and read Scalzi's reaction to it (which I very much agree with).

Even having been around the field as long as I have, I don't really feel like I understand fandom very well, so I'm not going to talk about that much.

What I mainly want to do is throw out a few ideas about reading.

So, first tweet, my Heinlein policy: I'm only half-joking here. Ask most YA authors or professionals who've attended SFF conventions and they'll confirm that at most of them, whether it be chatting in a hallway or on a panel, someone will ask you about the Heinlein juveniles or express their regret that they don't make books like that anymore and this new-fangled YA stuff has just taken over or tell you about what they want the next trend to be (note: Heinlein-y stuff!*).

It does get tiresome–especially because YA science fiction and fantasy has been in the midst of a new golden age for more than a decade, as far as I'm concerned, and if people want to write it (as many of the people who say the stuff above do), then they should be reading current YA. Which isn't to say you can't read old stuff or classic works can't inform us now. They absolutely can. But to assume that the progression of excellent fiction and exciting worlds and ideas and work stopped decades ago, when you were a kid reading the stuff, well… I just have to go to the bar. Be right back.

Also, you all know one of the things I hate most is when people have Strong Opinions about a genre or subgenre or type of book and have read zero to a number of examples that can be counted on one hand of that genre or subgenre or type of book and decided that they then understand the entirety of offerings under the umbrella. (Extra hate if they're writing about it in the Wall Street Journal or similar and pearl-clutching about the children, the children.)

Being really well-read in one genre or in all sorts of genres is a beautiful thing. Most of my favorite people on earth are. But to the second point I made yesterday morning, I have zero patience for reader shaming or for making people feel lesser or unwelcome or clueless because they haven't read the same things you have from some inevitably problematic canon checklist. 

For kicks, here's a little excerpt of some thoughts I posted about my issues with The Canon as a thing at the Nervous Breakdown several years ago during a censorship controversy: 

I don’t want to lay all this at the foot of The Canon, certainly not. But, hear me out, I do think that the elitist desire to rank fiction–when the rankers always, always have an agenda, be it a clear-cut one or not–ends up contributing to certain crazy ideas people hold about literature, especially people who don’t get out enough. And by get out enough, I mean who don’t read contemporary fiction, because it hasn’t been stamped by the mighty passage of time. Do I believe that history sorts out good books from the pack? Sometimes. Do I believe excellent fiction gets swallowed up as the years pass? Sure. Do I believe that the only healthy approach to reading involves throwing some newer stuff into the mix? With all my brain.

(Always nice when you still agree with yourself after time goes by.)

And yet, despite that, I'm actually not bugged by the Heinlein juvenile rhapsodizers not being current on modern YA–if it's not their thing, it's not their thing. What I'm bugged by is the casual dismissal of a body of work they're not familiar with, a determined averting of the eyes from it with their explicit or implicit insistence that the old classics are somehow innately better than books they haven't read.

Back to what I said yesterday morning: Never feel bad about your reading history–it's yours. And we're all still living our reading lives, which means if you encounter a blind spot and are interested in filling it in or giving something new a try, then you can do that.

I certainly have. When I decided to go to Vermont, one of the major reasons was because I didn't feel like I had enough context to fully understand children's literature and YA. Sure, I'd read plenty of current YA and I was writing it. But I hadn't read many of the classics of that field and I wanted a better grounding. My very first residency had a survey course, for which I read something like 70 books ranging from picture books to middle grade to YA, both older and newer, and then for the next two years, I read along that spectrum nonstop.

I like sinking into a new genre's worth of reading, picking up techniques and an idea of how different fields and genres and subgenres have evolved and continue to. But I absolutely don't expect everyone else to do this. I love recommending books, but I'm never offended if people pass on the recommendations.

If there's something you aren't interested in or haven't been interested in yet–or that you tried and didn't like–hey, fine. Your reading life is your own.

Re: point the third that our reading helps define who we are. I think we all know this, right? Books become a part of us. Everything we read enough of or react to strongly does. A reader is a person books are important to.

And so attempts to claim people don't belong or have the right frame of reference if they haven't read this or that is basically a complaint that people are trying to come to your party who aren't exactly like you. It does strike me as a variation on the "fake geek" argument, an attempt to put a sign on the old clubhouse that says No Admittance, not getting into this party without the stamp of approval.

But isn't it a way more fun party if new people show up, people who don't care whether you approve of them or not?

Which brings me to the real reason I wanted to do a post, because there's something I didn't touch on that I think is important.

While your reading history–past, present, and future–is your own, I do recommend giving some periodic thought to it. If, for instance, when asked to come up with a list of your ten favorite books every one of them is, say, written by a man or there are no authors of color included, then you might want to notice that and think about why it might be. Same if the last ten books you read can be described that way. But your reading is your own, ultimately, and while I suspect it would be richer if you got out more and mixed things up (and while such lists make me crazy), if it's a list of favorites, then your favorites are your favorites.

The problem comes when that list somehow gets mentally shifted from a personal favorites list–a this-is-what-I–like-best–to an empirical** best list–a this-is-the-highest-quality-example-of-book-type. And it's even more problematic if you're writing for a media outlet, or making a list to share in the real world, or nominating for awards, or writing reviews, or choosing what's important enough to be reviewed, or putting together an anthology, etc., and that difference isn't clear to you and something you correct for thoughtfully if need be.

When people point that kind of omission out or the attitudes that lead to it, that is not policing reading. That's inviting more people to the party.

*Nothing necessarily wrong with that, just no vacuum-sealed, as if it was gently lifted from a time-capsule stuff, please.

**Same problem as canon. Reasonable people can try to agree, but there will always be issues.

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Battle of the Sexists (aka Let The Self-Promotion Roll, Ladies)

7 Comments / Books, Nattering / By /

So…I almost talked myself out of making this post, but then, hey, I said I was going to start blogging again and these are the kinds of things I'm interesting in blogging about. Even though it is a little scary, for reasons the post will make clear. The thing is, publishing books is–even though our books are not ourselves–extremely revealing, by which I mean it opens us up to lots more casual judgment and criticism, especially when we voice opinions that not everyone agrees with or wants to hear.

It's probably one of the reasons I've talked less in depth about anything except writing and interesting bits and bobs I find on the Internet here, since Blackwood came out. The other is that it takes time, time away from writing fiction and doing other work and living, which is time and mental space I don't have much of. I like watching TV too much. So, there will probably be a lot more nattering type "this is what's going on" posts. Pet pictures and the like. But I'm not happy with confining all discussions of other things to twitter or facebook, and so here we are. And I come to you with a ranty ramble.

What prompted this post is a stew of things that happened to appear in concert this week, and some of which I've been stewing about ever since.

The first was the Jennifer Weiner profile in the New Yorker. I only just got time to read the whole thing last night. It's a fair, thoughtful piece, and definitely worth your time. 

I saw a few tweets flying around, which notified me of its existence, but the actual first direct impression I got of it was a secondary one. My friend Erin posted a link to a Slate reaction piece to it, one which had rightly piqued her ire. Reader, this piece makes my blood boil. The headline: "Jennifer Weiner Critiques Sexism in Publishing, Promotes Self." But, you know, writers aren't always in charge of the headline, and they often seem written to troll for outrage clicks, so I was prepared for the actual piece to be a little more balanced. It honestly isn't, and then there's this:

All of this means that Jennifer Weiner is an imperfect vessel for confronting sexism in the publishing industry. What it doesn’t mean is that Weiner is unique in her strategy of leveraging critical analysis to self-promote.

Just take in the wording for a second…see if anything jumps out at you in the wording, like, oh, I don't know: IMPERFECT VESSEL.

Look, I know, I know, there's a larger point being made, etc., et al., but as a writer, I believe words matter. The choice of words reveals so much here; it is the crux, the entire red effing wheelbarrow of the matter, as far as I'm concerned.

Don't be an imperfect vessel, kids. Which seems to mean, among other things, don't self-promote, don't believe your own work is worth promoting, and for eff's sake, don't imply that it's worthy of critical consideration OR that which books get attention really does often come down to initial perceptions of the people who make those decisions… Perceptions which are undeniably colored by impressions created by the track record/history of the author and the packaging (and I'd include marketing push there). And if you believe that women's and men's work are packaged the same, or that women authors whose works are or are perceived to be primarily about and/or for girls or women are on equal ground in this equation, then I have some lovely beachfront property I'd love to sell you with a library full of Franzen the Grouch novels. Just send me a cashier's check.

Ditto if you believe that women aren't perceived and treated differently when they  self-promote.

Some people are rubbed the wrong way by Jennifer Weiner, some are some of the time (I agree with her way more often than I don't and find her frequently hilarious), but what KILLS me about some of the reactions is just how much they are about her. Again, look, I get it, it's a reaction to a profile piece, also about her. But it is also absolutely typical and predictable to sidestep the points she's making. It's far easier to criticize her for self-promoting or talk about her shortcomings–whether perceived or real–than it is to address the substance of her arguments. Her arguments which are not only about the books of Jennifer Weiner.

Who, by the way, is an actual human being and author, not a vessel, perfect or imperfect or otherwise. The very phrasing in that sentence may have been what caused my blood to boil. (By the way, I have enjoyed some other pieces by the writer of the Slate one. Just decidedly not this one.)

Like Weiner, I would love to see more attention devoted to the work of women and especially that perceived to be aimed primarily at women and girls. I read category romance (I LOVE category romance) right beside mainstream literary fiction right beside mystery right beside YA right beside SF and I do my best to judge the books based on their merits. I try not to do that pre-slotting of things into Worthwhile and Not Worthwhile, but make that decision based on the book in question. I know my own likes and dislikes, which means not assuming that because something isn't my cup of book, it shouldn't exist or be talked about. This is also not to say that everything is equally "literary," but there are other measures of worth that are, um, worth discussing, too, and can we just admit that the term itself is pretty squishy and seems to stick to most of the things it's applied to, as long as the right person is doing the applying?

There are certain kinds of books the word is far less likely to be applied to. Sometimes, that may be because of the quality of the books. Sometimes, it may be for other reasons–lots of them. (I have seen people claim, for instance, that literary YA doesn't exist. Which is crazypants.)

What I wish as a reader is that I could find more smart writing about all those types of books I mentioned above easily, instead of the typical uninformed scarlet-rage inflammatory or blush-rosy nostalgic pieces about YA, or the terrible pieces implying women who read romance aren't feminists and all romances are identical, or calling out the one or two SF books this year that stand above the trash heap…. I could go on with examples, but this is getting long and I doubt I need to. This is why I believe blogs are still so important, and why I read so many, and oh romance and YA blogosphere in particular you are THE BEST. You write such smart pieces, about so many different kinds of books, taking them seriously. You talk the things I'm talking about here. But oh how I wish there were more opportunities for you to write about it for professional outlets and be paid.

(Aside: This is one of the main reasons I regretted leaving my regular reviewing gig at Locus. I want to see more women writing about books, period–also why I try to read every word about books people like Laura Miller, Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, Sarah Weinman, Roxane Gay, and Carolyn Kellogg produce, to name a handful, in addition to the blogs I follow.)

But, I digress. I wanted to talk a little bit about this idea that self-promotion is somehow inherently shameful or deserving of a call-out, especially when women are engaging in it.

Because at the same time the profile conversation was going on, this week there's been a bunch of talk in the SFF field about whether people should mention awards-eligible work and the associated discussions about self-promotion that engenders (not an accidental word choice). (Read those links.)

Not too long ago, two fabulous YA authors I consider friends wrote essays about the experience of being a woman writer and self-promoting, about the reactions that they get and see, and how those might be different toward women than men. Here's Sarah Rees Brennan's and here's Malinda Lo's.

I watched for reactions to these pieces with interest at the time, and I meant to post at length about them, but see above, avoiding rants. While most of the reactions I saw were quite positive, recognizing their valid points, I did also see a few really clueless mansplaining and nasty ones. I won't point to them, because…reasons, but ugh. Reactions like the one to Weiner in Slate tell the story just fine.

And before it comes up, I am not at all saying that men don't feel weird about self-promotion too, that they all feel completely comfortable and natural doing it. We're all humans here. Of course, it feels awkward. It feels awkward when I do it.

I'm also not saying there shouldn't be a balance, and that it's not possible to overdo it. It is, of course it is. In my experience, if you're someone who worries about that, you're probably not anywhere close to the line.

And yet.

Like most writers I know, I often experience doubts and bouts of imposter syndrome. But at the same time I am proud of my work, and it's work I, in fact, work really hard on. I want to be able to keep doing it. I also believe that women absolutely should not think twice about self-promotion. All the data suggests it's harder for the work of women, especially in certain genres, to get attention. That makes self-promoting part of the job for most of us, whether we like it or lump it. So if I catch myself hesitating on a RT or about posting some news related to my own books or trying to get an invite somewhere, I usually go on and do it, because I want to contribute to an online and offline culture where women don't hesitate and then decide not to speak up about their own work. Speaking up hopefully encourages speaking up. In case it doesn't: speak up.

Generosity of spirit is where it's at. Let's give each other the benefit of the doubt, and stash the judging on this point. I've always tried to help draw attention to other people's work I feel deserves it, but I pledge to do more of that, too.

Mostly, though, let's all try to call b.s. like this when we see it, by which I mean the attitudes about self-promotion and other things that help preserve the percentages in the VIDA count, that stoke the inequity in certain bestseller lists, and that make women not feel okay about trying to get attention for their work. Let our self-promotion truly be shameless.

End ranty rambling.

Speaking of promo, I'm determined to get a newsletter out something like quarterly this year. The first one will be sometime in the next week or so, and sign up if you want it.

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Post-Weekend Update

3 Comments / Artsy, Blackwood, Books, The Woken Gods / By /

Time flies, my friends, and there is not enough of it. A few little things…

Blackwood's ebook is now on sale for the low, low, a-steal-really price of $.99p or $1.99 at  Amazon and B&N. And if you buy from Amazon, you can add the audiobook for $3.49.

Handy links: Amazon US / Amazon UK / Nook

On to The Woken Gods, which releases in a week! Ack! I'll be at Joseph-Beth the evening of Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. to sign, read, and babble. Come out if you can.

If you participated in the preorder contest, your relic is winging its way to you as of today. I think these turned out pretty swell and they were lots of fun to do. I'm hoping you'll get them before you get your copies of the book, and do let me know if they don't show up in the next couple weeks. Here's a little peek at a handful as I took them to the mailbox:

 

A handful of relics!

 

(It ended up working out better to type the descriptions on labels and afix, because otherwise the postcards got destroyed on their way through the typewriter machine. You will also learn how you obtained said relics.)

  • Blog tourishness continues! I neglected to point to an interview with Red Reader Reviews last week that covered all sorts of topics, like how I'd spend my last day on Earth, my favorite quote, what animal I'd be (spoiler: a dragon!), etc. Check it out.
  • New review from Ashley at the A P Book Club. Snippet: "I'm always looking for a book where ancient mythologies are blended with contemporary settings. Take the Percy Jackson series. I loved those books, and I was kind of really excited to see that this was a book for fans of them. But honestly, I think Bond does it so much better. So I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for something along the lines of Percy Jackson, but maybe a little more complex and a lot darker." *beams*

And last, but definitely not least, I believe at least a little bit of book money should be spent on a frivolous splurge (whenever possible), and so I might have procured the most insanely great custom e-reader cover ever:

 

Coolest ever! My new e-reader cover.

 

Yay, Etsy. More anon, lovely people.

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Cheap Alchemy! Blackwood’s On Sale!

BirthdayGras!, Blackwood, Books / By /

It's Strange Chemistry's first birthday and they're celebrating with an excellent e-book sale on a slew of their first titles, including…

BlackwoodcoverBlackwood! $1.99 for the Kindle and the Nook here in the US and $.99p in the UK for Kindle. The Kindle prices already seem to be live, and the Nook should follow suit on Monday, if not before.

Handy links: Amazon US / Amazon UK / Nook

If you haven't read it yet, purchase away. If you have and enjoyed it, now's an excellent time to recommend it to someone else. Book sales like this are a fabulous way for lesser known authors — like yours truly — to get their books in front of new readerly eyeballs. 

And if you haven't checked out the other Strange Chemistry titles included, well, get cracking. You can buy ALL OF OUR BOOKS for less than a hardback — for less than some trade paperbacks, even! Whatta a deal. It's only on for a while, so do not delay.

p.s. You could also add The Woken Gods to your cart while you're there and/or leave Blackwood a review if you enjoyed it and haven't. These things make authors happier than you know.

p.p.s. Psst…told by a friend that if you buy the kindle edition of Blackwood on sale, you can add the audiobook for $3.49 — a steal!

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Five Things Make A Friday Post

Books, Nattering / By /

1. Heading out this weekend for this year's Bat Cave retreat. It's set up exactly like this:

Batcave-1968
(Image from here.)

Except replace the underground stream with a hot tub. There's really nothing more energizing, wonderful, and magical than spending a chunk of time holed up in a scenic locale with a gaggle of writers talking fiction and being silly and sharing war stories and in-jokes and, yeah, I can't wait. Especially because I am still being attacked by rogue deadline and have to rewrite some more words to escape its clutches. But! Nearly finished.

2. A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to teach a day-long workshop to this year's class of the Young Women Writers Project at the Carnegie Center. I can tell you that these are some amazing writers, who you'll be hearing lots from in the future. And I'm so sad to miss their big reading. If you're in the Lexington area, however, you should go: it's next Friday, April 19, at 5:30 p.m. (during Gallery Hop) at the Carnegie Center. Go support them.

3. I can't remember where I saw this regional dialect map first, but it is fascinating.

4. A typically wise post from the fabulous Robin LaFevers on the ups and downs of life in publishing. The creative life is definitely not for those who are afraid of heights or lows.

5. Speaking of which, this week has obviously been a high point for me. When you sell your first book(s), it's impossible to know if you'll publish more of them after that. It feels, often, that this must be an accident or a mistake, and to expect it to happen again, well, that's some nerve. That's tempting fate. But you keep writing anyway, of course, because you can't stop and there are stories to tell and what's fate for, but to tempt? (See also: Chuck Wendig's post on imposter syndrome.) Girl on a Wire was a book I started not thinking at all of the market, before I sold Blackwood, just because I wanted to tell this story, and it would be worth it even if it never saw the light of day. And then I finished it and revised it because I still felt that way, despite the shadow voice whispering that my first sale was a fluke. To have that book find such a great home is just as surreal and marvelous as selling Blackwood and The Woken Gods (eep! hope you like it too) was. In some ways more, because of all of the above. I can't wait to get back to work on it. But I just wanted to say again THANK YOU, sincerely, for the overwhelming flood of congratulations on twitter, tumblr, facebook, email–wherever congratulations are possible–this week. It means more than you can know.

So, love to y'all, and happy weekend.

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New Book Deal! The Circus Book Finds A Home!

7 Comments / Books, Girl on a Wire / By /

So, I'm delighted to share this news, from today's PW Children's Bookshelf:

Announcement

 

This is the book I finished the first draft (well, the first draft of the second draft, natch) on New Year's day–fitting, because while there will be plenty of time to detail the combination of swirling things that became Girl on a Wire, I know precisely when the first inkling of it arrived…over New Year's 2011. (When I'm asked where I got this idea, I can say from The Flu and it will be somewhat true.)

Anyway, I'm really proud of this book, and I hope you'll all love it. It comes from many of my obsessions–the circus, high wire walking, girl daredevils, classic screwball comedies, multi-generational family mysteries: if any of those are things you like, well, you're in luck. (It's set in the here and now, by the way. Though I hope it's infused with lots of history.)

I must give many, many thanks to the 2012 Bat Cave workshoppers, who gave me such great advice on the first draft–especially to Laurel Snyder and Beth Revis, who read the whole messy thing and helped me figure out what was working and what wasn't. And, of course, massive thanks to my fabulous, best agent on earth Jennifer Laughran, and to Larry Kirshbaum, Tim Ditlow and their team at Amazon Children's for truly getting the book and being so very enthusiastic about it. You left me with no doubt that this is, simply, the book's best possible home. I'm excited to work with you on it.

(On a different note: I just want to make clear that I will always support independent bookstores. I hope some of you–my dear friends at fabulous indies–will consider stocking the book when it comes out next year. But if not, then we will work together on other things and I will tell people to come in and order it from you anyway. There is room for everyone in this literary future, that I believe.)

And now! A photo of Jules'–the main character's–hero, Bird Millman, over New York City:

 

Bird new york

I truly can't wait for you all to be able to read this one. Yay!

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Haunted at 17: The Open Road & the End of the World

11 Comments / Adventures, Books / By /

Nova Ren Suma’s new novel, 17 & Gone, comes out this week (today, as a matter of fact), and to mark the release of this story about a 17-year-old girl haunted by the missing, she’s asked some authors she knows to join her in answering this question… What haunted YOU at 17? To see all the authors taking part, be sure to visit her blog distraction99.com.

(Because I'm trying to meet another deadline, I missed the deadline to get my post over to Nova for this. But here it is, anyway. Loving seeing all these, both there and elsewhere, so if you feel moved to contribute: please do and send her the link.)

Hauntedat17banner

The Open Road & the End of the World

Every morning during my senior year, I drove into the school parking lot blasting R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." And not just blasting it, singing along at the top of my lungs, especially on that parenthetical (you know I love a parenthetical). "AND I FEEL FINE!" I would shout it, as loud as I could in my terrible, abysmal, never-any-good voice, because it didn't matter, because there was no one there to hear. Car singing is the safest kind of singing, safer even than dancing around your room. It's you, moving through space, the music turned up so it obliterates your voice and even you don't care if you're off tune. You might still be able to hear yourself think, but you can't hear yourself sing. So: "AND I FEEL FINE!" Was it the truth?

Of course not.

…

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Friday Randomness & Hangovers

2 Comments / Books, Hangovers / By /

Veronica Mars movie! My heart soars. (As those of you who remember our old Veronica Mars Talk threads of yore–which can be ferretted out in the TV goodness category–will have guessed already.)

Otherwise, I continue to be working lotslotslots on revision as deadline approacheth. This comes with wild happiness of progress and a project coming together (finally!), leading to goofy behavior like this morning's twitter musings on the army of hotel detectives I would like to have (note: nothing to do with the book), and then swings back to the other end of stress that's just part of being a writer and always waiting on stuff and never quite knowing what comes next. Brain is cooperating on book, and so staying more toward the happy end than the stress end at the moment. Which is nice. Still, to do this job, you have to get okay with uncertainty. It's just a fact.

Also with sometimes falling behind on things like email, because your available energy is directed elsewhere. Sorry about that if I owe you something. It may be next month before I get fully caught up, especially if there's not a hard deadline. But I have collected a few little links in the meantime.

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Shadowhunting!

Adventures, Books, Excuses, Excuses / By /

Well, that seemed like a way more exciting post title than Essaying. Though, in fact, I am super-excited to report that Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader is officially out today from the very fabulous Smart Pop Books. You can find out more info at that link and read Cassie's introduction online for this entire week.

I was beyond excited to get to contribute an essay for this, given that these are some of my favorite books in the world and considering that the contributors include many of my other favorite writers (in TOC order: Kate Milford, Sarah Cross, Diana Peterfreund, Robin Wasserman, Michelle Hodkin, Kami Garcia, Kendare Blake, Rachel Caine, Sara Ryan, Scott Tracey, Kelly Link, Holly Black, and Sarah Rees Brennan).

The lovely Smart Pop folks are also posting nice pull quote graphics from all our essays over on tumblr. Here's mine:

 

Smartpopfriendquote

Speaking of which (friends, I mean), I'm about to drop off the grid–somewhat–for this year's installment of a magical retreat in Mexico and some major revision time. I may well pop up here or there, but probably not quite as much as usual for the next couple of weeks. But, it's okay, I'll be writing hard and wishing on stars. Promise.

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Season Of Reflection

Books, Nattering / By /

That's what we're in, isn't it? We're surrounded by lists of things from the old year, and thinking ahead to what we're looking forward to or hope to achieve in 2013. This past year was a crazy packed one for me, in a way I was only tentatively allowing myself to hope for at this time a year ago.

What a difference a year makes–since then I've really begun the career I've been working toward for years by selling two books and having one come out (!),  having that book optioned for TV and then put into development at M-freaking-TV (yeah, I still can't believe that happened), and, in addition to everything else, writing two books this year. (Yes, I got to the end of my revision on the secret book; doing clean-up and it will be off my desk for a while by the end of the year.) You were not apocalyptic, but you were full of surprises and anxiety and busybusyness, 2012.

ANYway, editor Amanda asked us for Best lists of 2012 for the Strange Chemistry blog. As I explain over there, I'm a little fatigued by the whole concept of Best of lists at the moment (though not too fatigued to blow kisses at Kat Howard at Fantasy Matters, Leo Elijah Cristea, and Jenny Davidson for including Blackwood in their end of year reading wrap-ups this week). But one of the things I have learned this year–and, oh boy, I have learned a great many things–is that bookstores are even more important than I thought they were. And I've always thought they were important. I remain thrilled that you can pick Blackwood up at B&N, but a great gift of having the book come out has been getting to meet and talk to so many new book people (book people are the best people) and many of the most special times this year took place at independent bookstores. Each one unique and wonderful, and a reflection of the community it serves. As a new author, the support of booksellers has meant more than I can say. But I tried in my entry about my Favorite Places of 2012, writing about the seven fabulous indies I got to visit this year.

Go check it out, and leave your own indie love in the comments if you like. I'm hoping to get to some new places this year, especially when The Woken Gods comes out (July! soon enough I will start to talk more about this and at some point there will be a cover and ARCs and things of that sort! panic!). And while these are stores I wanted to single out because I visited them this year, please know that I appreciate each and every bookseller, reader, blogger, librarian and generally kind soul who has read Blackwood, reviewed it, put it into someone's hands or encouraged someone else to read it. I mentally give a frolicking kitten wings whenever a copy is handsold or passed on to a friend. And I hope you'll all be excited about The Woken Gods too. I'm excited for you to read it.

But who knows what 2013 holds? Not me. And I'm okay with that. I'll take another ticket for the roller coaster, please.

Happy New Year, everyone.

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